If you travel in China and find a beautiful spot, you might want to take a photo there together with your friends. Sometimes you want to ask someone nearby to help you take a picture. In this lesson we will learn how to do this as well as how to use a popular Chinese camera app called 美颜相机 [měi yán xiàng jī]（BeautyCam）.

“Photograph” in Chinese is 照片 [zhào piàn], and to say “take a photo” you can use 照相 [zhào xiàng] or 拍照 [pāi zhào]. If you want to ask someone to take a photo for you, you can say:

Hover over any word to show translation

nǐ hǎo

你好

你好

Hello!

，

qǐng wèn

请问

請問

Excuse me, may I ask...?

nǐ

你

你

you (informal)

néng

能

能

to be able to, to be capable of

bāng

帮

幫

to help, to assist

wǒ men

我们

我們

we, us

pāi

拍

拍

to take (a photo), to shoot (a film)

zhāng

张

張

classifier for flat objects, sheet

zhào

照

照

to take (a photo), a photograph

ma

吗

嗎

(question particle for "yes-no" questions)

？

Hello, could you help us take a picture?

Character set

Pinyin

To help us bring out that beautiful smile, we often say a phrase when we take the photo. Americans like to say “cheese”, but what about the Chinese? The Chinese equivalent is 茄子 [qié zi] （lit. eggplant）. Just like with “cheese”, you put on a huge smile when you say 茄子.

Hover over any word to show translation

zhǔn bèi

准备

準備

preparation, to prepare

hǎo

好

好

good, well, very

le

了

了

(completed action marker)

ma

吗

嗎

(question particle for "yes-no" questions)

？

yī

1

1

、

èr

2

2

、

sān

3

3

…

qié zi

茄子

茄子

eggplant, aubergine

！

Are you ready? 1, 2, 3 ... Cheese!

Character set

Pinyin

Most mobile phones have built-in cameras you can use for taking selfies. Taking a selfie is called 自拍 [zì pāi]. A lot of Chinese enjoy 自拍, and they upload their pictures to their WeChat community (朋友圈 [péng you quān]). To make the picture even more beautiful, you can enhance the photo before uploading it. Perhaps the most popular app for enhancing photos right now is an app called 美颜相机 [měi yán xiàng jī] （BeautyCam）. 美 [měi] means beauty, 颜 [yán] means face, and 相机 [xiàng jī] means camera.

Hover over any word to show translation

wǒ

我

我

I, me

xǐ huan

喜欢

喜歡

to like, to be fond of

yòng

用

用

to use

měi yán

美颜

美顏

beautiful face

xiàng jī

相机

相機

camera

zì pāi

自拍

自拍

to take a picture or video of oneself

，

yīn wèi

因为

因為

because, owing to

zhè yàng

这样

這樣

this kind of, this way

kě yǐ

可以

可以

can, may

bǎ

把

把

particle marking the following noun as a direct object

zì jǐ

自己

自己

oneself, one's own

pāi

拍

拍

to take (a photo), to shoot (a film)

de

得

得

structural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to following phrase indicating effect, degree, possibility etc

měi měi

美美

美美

beautiful

de

的

的

(used to form a nominal expression)

。

wǒ

我

我

I, me

yòng

用

用

to use

měi yán

美颜

美顏

beautiful face

xiàng jī

相机

相機

camera

bǎ

把

把

particle marking the following noun as a direct object

zì pāi

自拍

自拍

to take a picture or video of oneself

de

的

的

(used after an attribute)

xiàng piàn

相片

相片

image, photograph

shàng chuán

上传

上傳

to upload

dào

到

到

to (a place)

péng you

朋友

朋友

friend

quān

圈

圈

circle, timeline in the WeChat chat application

hòu

后

後

afterwards

，

péng you

朋友

朋友

friend

dōu

都

都

all

shuō

说

說

to say

wǒ

我

我

I, me

piào liang

漂亮

漂亮

pretty, beautiful

，

wǒ

我

我

I, me

hěn

很

很

very

gāo xìng

高兴

高興

happy, glad

。

I like to use BeautyCam to take selfies, because then I can take beautiful pictures of myself. After I use BeautyCam and upload my selfies to WeChat, all my friends say that I'm beautiful and it makes me very happy.

Character set

Pinyin

So how do you use 美颜相机? Let’s learn some camera related words while we take a look at the app. Some of the words below are a little difficult for beginners, so don't feel like you need to memorize all of them. You can just take a look at the English translations to learn how to use the different features of 美颜相机. For more advanced learners, you can learn all the Chinese words and challenge yourself to use the Chinese version of the app.

美颜相机 can be downloaded from outside China where it is called “BeautyCam”.

自拍 [zì pāi] – Selfie

高级美颜 [gāo jí měi yán] - Beautify

视频自拍 [shì pín zì pāi] – Video Selfie

The biggest reason for the app's popularity is the 自拍 (selfie) function. By a tap of this button you can easily take a photo of yourself. The app has lots of color filters, and more advanced filters such as automatically applying makeup or making your skin look more beautiful.

夜拍 [yè pāi] – Night photography

触屏拍照 [chù píng pāi zhào] – Tap to Snap

延时关闭 [yán shí guān bì] – Timer Off

比例 [bǐ lì] – Ratio

智能美型 [zhì néng měi xíng] – Auto Face-Lift

电影柔焦 [diàn yíng róu jiāo] – Lens blur

特效 [tè xiào] – Filters – There are a lot of different lenses to choose from, such as peach, blues and rococo.

美妆 [měi zhuāng] – Makeup – With this feature you can digitally add makeup to your face. The app features many different makeup styles.

梦幻 [mèng huàn] – Dreamy – This feature makes your photos look more dreamy. For example, if you choose “stars”, you get a photo with beautiful stars floating around you.

Now you know how to take a photo! You can also adjust your photo afterwards by using the Beautify feature - 高级美颜 [gāo jí měi yán]. Here can adjust your photo to make you look taller or slimmer etc.

一键美颜 [yí jiàn měi yán] – One-Tap

编辑 [biān jí] – Edit

美颜特效 [měi yán tè xiào] – Filters

磨皮 [mó pí] – Smooth

肤色 [fū sè] – Tones

祛斑祛痘 [qù bān qù dòu] – Details

瘦脸瘦身 [shòu liǎn shòu shēn] – Slim

五官立体 [wǔ guān lì tǐ] – Contouring

增高 [zēng gāo] – Taller

眼睛放大 [yǎn jing fàng dà] – Enlarge

亮眼 [liàng yǎn] – Brighten

淡化黑眼圈 [dàn huà hēi yǎn quān] – Dark Circles

Now you can take a beautiful photo and upload to your 朋友圈 [péng you quān] （community）! I'm sure you will receive a lot of compliments!

This is the accompanying blog post for our newbie lesson "Help Taking a Photo".You can read the entire lesson for free using Du Chinese, available for iPhone and Android.Click here for more information.